~ A Fantasy Fiction Blog

Of Podcasts and Craft Books

So I’m back and planning to post regularly again. A lot has happened in the past year or so since I was an active blogger. Health things and work things and writerly things I’ll probably discuss in more detail as time goes on.

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten more involved in science fiction and fantasy fandom, and mostly it’s been pretty awesome!

I was on the Skiffy and Fanty Podcast, for one of their great Torture Cinema episodes. Great panel review of Night of the Comet (1984), featuring among other acting talent Robert Beltran (of later Star Trek: Voyager fame). I’ll post a link once the episode is up so stay tuned.

I’ve been writing a lot lately and though I don’t like to talk too much about writing craft a lot, I’d like to recommend Donald Maass’s craft books, both the older (somewhat dated now) Writing the Breakout Novelist (2001) and the awesome The Emotional Craft of Fiction (2001). Maass is a literary agent and head of his own agency in NYC with decades of experience, and both books are great if you’re at that point in your writerly craft where you’re producing manuscripts that editors and agents will want to look at. Good luck!

Speaking of podcasts AND agent-er-ly writing advice, check out episode four of Kameron Hurley’s podcast, featuring her agent Hannah Bowman, with about 50 minutes of writing tips, story structure, and how to get to the meat of your story–putting your heart on the page and exploring those things you are scared to write about. I’m dealing with putting myself out there and exploring my rusty innards so this was good self-care as well as awesome writerly craft fuel. Definitely you’ll want to listen in (maybe two or three times as I have).

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I hope you’ve been moving forward, achieving your goals, and trying to live your best life. Like all stories, yours is a journey full of pitfalls and triumphs, so write it the best you can everyday.